Forty for The Quibbler
by Onyx Obsidian
Summary: Luna, as the owner of The Quibbler, requests her friends submit articles for their birthday. It's Hermione's turn to write one for her fortieth birthday. This is what she has so far.


**AN: I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the other characters. JK Rowling just lets me play here. **

**So...long time, no see, eh? I know this isn't an update of any of my other stories you guys are very patiently waiting on, and I'm sorry. I hope you enjoy this, though. **

**I will eventually get to the others, but it's a bit of a process. I'm not in a good head space most of the time, and writing has been a bit hard lately. Consider this my attempt to get back into the swing of things. **

**Enjoy!**

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Forty.

I am forty years old as of yesterday – the nineteenth.

Where in Merlin's name did the time go? Wasn't it just yesterday I was seventeen, and feeling like I had the world at my fingertips?

No. No, it wasn't. That was twenty - three years ago.

What?!

Seriously, where'd the time go?

When I was still a teenager, freshly graduated from Hogwarts, I felt that urge that a lot of people get. That feeling to travel. See what the world had to offer. Meet new people. Experience new things, new ideas.

So, I did. For seven years after Hogwarts, I roamed with no real destination in mind. I managed to visit each of the seven continents, nearly every country – some more than once, mind you, - met a variety of new and interesting people, tasted food I had never heard of – like dried bull penis and fried bull testicles, which I didn't even know were edible, by the way, - saw all of the big tourist attractions – I think Machu Picchu was my favorite.

And I enjoyed every minute of it, too.

Oh, I made it home for all the big events, of course. I wasn't gone for the full seven years. I managed to get home for Ron's wedding to Lavender. She had undergone quite the change over the years, and now she was now on my list of closet friends, weird as it may seem to those who knew us in Hogwarts.

I made it home for Harry's wedding to Luna, and Ginny's wedding to – get this – Draco Malfoy! Like Lavender, he's a whole new person, and a fun guy to be around.

Then, there was the double wedding of the twins – go figure - to Angelina and Katie, their longtime girlfriends. And, of course, I made it to Percy's wedding to Audrey, a lovely witch he met at the Ministry.

I also came home for all the Christmas celebrations, and the birth of each new Weasley/Potter/Malfoy child. Being godmother to most of them, I wouldn't have missed those for all the galleons in the world.

I wouldn't have missed Molly and Arthur's fortieth wedding anniversary for the world, either. That was, believe it or not, what made me consider returning home for good. It was a weekend long party, filled with love and laughter, friends and family, and, of course, lots of tears, both happy and sad.

When I was twenty-four, I made the decision to return home. I'd enjoyed my travels, but I was homesick. So, while sitting in a park in Barcelona, I came to the conclusion that my years as a gypsy were over, and it was time to put down roots and settle down.

What clinched it, I think, was when I went back to celebrate the birth of Ron and Lav's triplets. It was watching a tired, yet glowing with happiness Lavender, surrounded by all five of their children, that it hit me. _This_ was what I wanted.

I'd had the experiences – and several tattoos to prove it, – but what I truly wanted was the house, the husband, the children, the family. All of it. Maybe even a dog or two, or a cat, which I hadn't had since poor Crookshanks passed away.

I eventually got everything I wanted.

Not long after returning home, I reconnected with more old friends from Hogwarts, and it wasn't long after that Dean Thomas and I were quite the item. With both of us working for ourselves – he as a very successful DJ at a London nightclub, and myself as an author – we got to spend a great deal of time together.

Soon enough, where one was, the other wasn't too far away. Dean and I were practically joined at the hip, and other places. Almost all of our time together was spent laughing, and when we weren't laughing, there were other sounds of happiness filling the air.

Needless to say, our more pleasurable activites pushed other concerns to the back of our minds, and a month before our first anniversary, I gave birth to our first child, Miranda. She was a perfect blend of the two of us, and a happier baby you'd never find.

Dean and I bought our home shortly after Miranda's birth, and we moved in just a month after she was born. It quickly became not just a house, but our home, our sanctuary. It was filled with love, and laughter, and was constantly filled with family and friends.

It was perfect. It was just what I had imagined those years before.

What made it even more perfect, however, was the subsequent births of our children – Julia, Matthew, Michael, and the twins Caleb and Callum.

And, at the pleas of our children, we also got the dogs – Cookie, Pepper, and Brownie. And the cats, Duchess and Princess.

I finally have everything I wanted. I have the house, which I still love to this day. Honestly, I can't imagine living anywhere else. I have the husband, who is still my ideal man, even fifteen years later. I have the children, although I never imagined I'd have six. I have the dogs, I have the cats, I even have goldfish, and a pair of pygmy puffs.

I'm forty years old, and I still think anything is possible. And I, for one, can't wait to see what the future holds.

-Hermione Granger – Thomas's birthday article rough draft for _The Quibbler_, to be published September 20, 2019 at the request of Luna Potter, owner and publisher-

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**Review please. **

**Also, if you'd like to, follow me on Twitter. The same name, and my profile pic is a b&w of my shoes. **

**XOXO - Onyx **


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